The Financial Times has reported a debate among accountants
about giving a ‘fair value’ to company assets.
What does this mean? As we know, finance capital has a slight problem at present.
Banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions have assets on their books
that they have found out are actually not worth as much as they thought when
they paid for them.
Marks and Spencer boss Stuart Rose comments, “the West End can’t get enough diamonds”. But the poor are getting poorer. The Institute of Fiscal Studies found 47,000 citizens had incomes over £350,000. They sum up by saying “income inequality is currently at its highest level since the late 1940s.” Is this what you’d expect after ten years of Labour government?
From the Times 6th March 2008-03-17: The big six energy companies are charging the poorest customers up to £330 a year more for gas and electricity. Tariffs for prepayment are up to 45% higher than internet customers. More than 4.5 million people are in fuel poverty, i.e. spending more than 10% of income on heating their home.
Did you know?..that for all the fuss about asylum seekers, only 2 in 100 apply to come here…that 90% of asylum seekers speak two or more languages and 65% three languages?
Two giant firms employing two of the most brilliant teams of workers on
the planet could be helping to make the world a better place. Instead
they are producing killing machines. That’s capitalism for you.
Instead of co-operating, they are squabbling over market share. As Karl
Marx said, “It’s one thing to share out profits and quite another to
share out losses.” Could this be the start of a trade war?
This resolution has been passed to go to Amicus UNITE Conference. It’s
an important issue and we hope for the widest sympathy and active
support for its sentiments.
After the cement industry, now Chavez has nationalised SIDOR
with its 15,000 workforce. This has come about thanks to the pressure of the
SIDOR workers who were able to contact Chavez directly. The decision is a
correct one. It must now be followed by a general nationalisation of the
commanding heights of the Venezuelan economy and finally complete the
revolution.
Japan is
the second biggest industrial economy in the world. In the 1980s it experienced
a huge speculative bubble, just like the housing bubble that has burst in the USA and is on the point of bursting in Britain now.
When the bubble burst, the Japanese people, who up till then were regarded as
living in a ‘miracle economy,’ experienced a decade of recession – a ‘lost
decade’.
Today marks 40 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., shot in the face on the 2nd floor balcony of the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was imprisoned for the
assassination, though never granted a trial for his murder. Given the
US government’s targeting of radicalised black leaders at this time,
whoever pulled the trigger did the state’s dirty work for them. The
King family never accepted Ray was responsible.
A
major exhibition of the photographic work of Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) is
currently on at the Hayward Gallery in London. It is sponsored by Roman Abramovich, the
billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club and a supporter of the Moscow House
of Photography Museum whose director, Olga Sviblova, curated the show. This important Russian
artist is
considered one of the most versatile avant-garde artists to have emerged after the Russian
Revolution.
The NUJ’s annual conference meets at a crucial time for the union.
After 7 years of membership growth a wave of redundancies has hit the
union hard – both numerically and financially. The conference will set the scene for the biggest fight the union
faces over the coming 18 months – the future of public service
broadcasting. The BBC has seen thousands of jobs cut, whilst ITV have
axed local and regional services. More cuts are planned. And the
regulator and government are allowing them to happen.
Teachers in the NUT have voted three to one in favour of a
one day strike on 24th April. This is an overwhelming vote to reject
the degrading pay offer of New Labour,
and reflects the deeper disgust of teachers at the education policies of the
government.